Saturday, April 09, 2011
'Mercy & the Firefly' takes dysfunction to new heights
Post Gazette: "In a week that brings us 'Next to Normal,' the bar for dramatic family dysfunction is already set high. But Amy Hartman's 'Mercy & the Firefly' clears that bar with ease, scaling heights of dysfunction you might not imagine. It's grim stuff. But 'Mercy' counteracts that: first, in the sardonic humor with which Ms. Hartman interlaces her dialogue, especially early, before the dimensions of that dysfunction become more (but never totally) clear; in the indisputable humanity of her characters; and then, astonishingly amid the debris of emotional carnage, when a small flower of love and compassion forces its way up through the concrete.
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It's interesting that the reviewer here has called this a play about a dysfunctional family. Because there is a mother/daughter storyline, but that is not the bulk of the play. In fact, I'm not sure what this play is about. There were definitely themes of forgiveness and right versus wrong, and the writing was very strong, but I don't know what the point was. I do know I'll be thinking about it for a while (and not only because I need to write a performance review on it). It was a great mix of seriousness and wit, but also realism and surrealism. There was a lot of allusion, and whether that was written into the text or not is unclear. The allusion heightened the whole piece, but it was very real at the same time.
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